Western Research Institute developed the following WRITE technology for upgrading substantially unpumpable heavy oils, such as bitumen, to pipeline ready, diluent-free “crude” oil that meets crude oil pipeline specification. The term substantially unpumpable refers to materials with pour points so high that they are not pumpable under normal pipeline conditions but may be pumpable under conditions of high temperature or when significantly diluted with, for example, low molecular weight hydrocarbons.
Generally, this inventive technology relates to hydrocarbonaceous material (e.g., oil) processing methods and apparatus. More specifically, specific aspects of the technology relate to the use of thermal environments, perhaps each as part of a stage in a multi-stage processing apparatus and perhaps each adapted to continuously process an oil input (including a hydrocarbonaceous bottoms output by an upstream stage). Such oil input may be heated for a residence time and at a specific temperature. Such may increase the amount of vapors emitted as compared with conventional processing technologies, in addition to affording enhanced control over oil processing operations by providing a highly tunable system.